Improving an Experimental Test Bed with Time-Varying Parameters for Developing High-Rate Structural Health Monitoring Methods

Abstract

With the development of complex structures with high-rate dynamics, such as space structures, weapons systems, or hypersonic vehicles, comes a need for real-time structural health monitoring (SHM) methods. Researchers are developing algorithms for high-rate SHM methods, however, limited data exists on which to test these algorithms. An experimental test bed to simulate high-rate systems with rapid parameter changes was previously presented by the authors. This paper expands on the previous work. The initial configuration consisted of a cantilevered steel beam with a cart-roller system on a linear actuator to create an adjustable boundary condition along the beam, as well as detachable added masses. Experimental results are presented for the system in new configurations during various parameter changes. A clamped-clamped condition to increase the system’s natural frequencies is studied, along with improvements in test repeatability and user control over parameter changes.